The Chicks Have Arrived!!!

FINALLY! My seven glorious baby chicks arrived yesterday at 7:30 in the morning. I have been counting the days to their arrival and the closer the hatch date got the more nervous and excited I became. When I picked them up at the post office and was handed this little chirping brown box I thought for a brief minute, “what have I done?” Thankfully, by the time I got them into the car this wave of “motherly hen” took over me and I immediately started talking to the box to try to calm them. I even sang to them all the way home thinking that might be of some comfort, lol! When I got home my husband greeted me outside and we happily went in and placed the box inside our brooder. I’m so glad I had already started the heat lamp and filled the water and food containers before I went to the post office. When we opened the box all seven of them were clumped together in one corner chirping quite loudly at this point. Once they were in the brooder a bit they seemed very happy to have more room to move about as they warmed up. I dipped their beaks into the water like all the books say to do, but they still seemed a bit scared and unsure of everything so I just let them be and watched them. It didn’t take long for one of the chicks to discover the food and within seconds all the other chicks joined in the feeding frenzy. It took a little longer for them to start drinking, but not much longer. After they ate and drank a little I checked each one for pasting up and all of their fluffy behinds were just fine, thank the Lord! I proceeded to watch them further and found their behaviors quite amusing. Since they were only 2 days old they were still trying to find their footing. My husband and I kept laughing at one of them who looked like a little drunk at times. After a couple of hours they were all doing just fine except for one (my little diva, Speckled Sussex) who reminds me of a chipmunk. She kept chirping loudly and no matter what I did I could not console her or figure out what she was trying to tell me. Then all of a sudden she started woofing down the chick feed like no tomorrow and afterwards stopped chirping. The silly thing was hungry and was too busy nosing about the brooder to eat. She is VERY curious about everything, lol.

Here’s your belly laugh of the day: I got up twice last night to check on my chicks. I’m nuts, I know, and you know what I found out both times I crawled out of bed? They were just fine and sleeping like babies! 🙂